These days, people blog, and other people leave comments on the blogs. Before blogging, though, people who wanted to do something like this had to use paper and send it through the mail. So, basically, an APA (Amatuer Press Association) is a club, a hobby, a bit of fun, for people who send each other their 'zines to be read and commented on.
The quality of the zine in an APA depends really on how much time, effort and money the editor can afford to put into it. Most people have little time or money for it, and this is one reason why most 'zines are distributed online these days. It is far cheaper than postage.
Many people produce 'zines without belonging to an APA, and may even sell them either through the mail or through a shop such as the one I saw recently in the Degraves St exit under Flinders St station. Many others are available for downloading free off the internet.
ANZAPA has been going for forty years. In fact, we recently celebrated its 40th Birthday. Many different members have come and gone over those years. When it started, people had to use roneos and wax stencils to produce and print off their 'zines. Photocopying made production much easier. Now just about everyone has computers, and producing a zine is very easy – just type it up and print out the required number of copies. It is fun trying to think of amusing things to say and putting in pictures and making the layout nice.
ANZAPA is one of the last of the paper APAs still going. We may go online in the future, but some members are not that comfortable with computer stuff, and some find reading on screen a bit tiring for the eyes, and some just like working with paper – consider how popular scrapbooking is - and so for many reasons, we have so far chosen to continue with it as a paper APA.
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